Bhatkal to officials: IM working on hydrogen peroxide-based IEDs

Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal is learnt to have told his interrogators that the IM is experimenting with the manufacture of hydrogen peroxide-based IEDs.

An expert bomb maker, Bhatkal is suspected to have undergone training to make IEDs using hydrogen peroxide and acetone.

According to counter-terrorism experts, the same chemicals were used in the 2005 London train bombings.

Bhatkal reportedly said that the top IM leadership discussed the use of peroxide-based IEDs after the government decided to regulate the sale of ammonium nitrate. However, investigators have not found peroxide-based IEDs in any of the bomb blasts in the country so far.

Bhatkal is reported to have told officials that he was pulled up by his bosses and got a phone call from Karachi after the Surat bombs failed to explode in 2008, as well as when the Chinnaswamy stadium blasts in Bangalore failed to cause mass casualties. He reportedly claimed his handler was a lieutenant colonel in Pakistan's ISI.

An officer involved in the probe said Bhatkal claimed that "whatever he had done was for a just cause" and "had a logical explanation for all the blasts in the country."

"He would take extreme precautions while carrying out any operation. During his stay in Nepal, they were planning their next operation," said sources. "He was single-handedly procuring the explosives for his group. He knows all the suppliers and the locations from where the explosives for the group's activities were being procured," said the officer. Officials said the IM's main source of chemicals, explosives and detonators was the mining industry.

Bhatkal is also reported to have managed the finances of the terror outfit, and was involved in recruiting new talent as well. Intelligence agencies said they have have recovered two laptops, four cellphones, pen drives and CDs from his possession.

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